Is cloud right for you? Everyone asks this question and it's a good question but the answer is almost always "absolutely yes" Can you imaging how good it is to know that if your computers stopped working you could just go and work from somewhere else? Or, in the event that you couldn't to the office because because there was a fire and the whole building had gone! wouldn't be great just to say "you know what, we can work from somewhere else, we may not have an office but we can get to our work load!"

You may already be using "The Cloud" in things such as Gmail, Youtube, Facebook and many other services that you might be taking for granted. you that is the beauty of the Cloud is some of us are already using it and have been for may years.

Why is The Cloud called "The Cloud" and not something else? For many years (and some of you will remember this) IT people have have drawn the "internet" like a cloud. when they want to explain how two offices connect through the "internet" they often express the internet as a cloud (remember now?). if you search google for network diagrams you will find some that show" internet" and a Cloud.

Here are my top 10 questions to ask yourself or your provider before signing up.

There is nothing more dramatic than losing your data, I know, I’ve seen grown men get tearful at the thought of losing family photos. If you have ever lost your data you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say that having some reassurance on the other end of the telephone is a must.

So number 1 question is: If I lose my data or if I get into trouble can I call someone like a support desk? If the answer is anything other than “YES” then what are you going to do when something goes wrong? Are really any better off placing your data somewhere that might not help you when things go wrong?

Question number 2 is: Where is my data kept?

If the answer is anything other than the UK then you need to ask where is being kept and whether they subscribe to the Data Protection Act?

Question 3: If you are a Data Collector and you want to use The Cloud to store your data. According the Commissioners Office, in order to comply with the data protection act, you need to have a signed contract with the cloud provider.

Question 4: Once you upload the data to The Cloud, who owns that data, is it still yours?

Question 5: Once you upload your data to The Cloud, Who has access to that data?

Question 6: Will you do anything to with my data? Almost every cloud provider tracks the number of customers, the type of customer, the amount of storage and the amount of processor time for billing and marketing reasons. Be sure to find out if that information ends up anywhere else. Even though you may own the data, some vendors might use it to tailor advertising.

Question 7: What happens to my data should I move to another provider or cancel my account?

Question 8: Is there a limit on how much data I can upload or download?

Well there you have it 8 questions that you should ask yourself and your provider. I know that there ‘s only 8 questions and I said 10 but you got 8 good ones instead of 10 boring ones. Wasn’t that a pleasant surprise?

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